Author
Topic: Sam's Club flour (Read 3566 times)

Bakers & Chefs flour is available here for me...25lb. sacks. One is labeled AP and the other is "Bread and pizza flour". Yet both indicate 3% in 30 grams....10% protein. I wonder why the BF one does not list a higher protein? I understand they are allowed to list aproxs. Does anyone know if the BF product is a high gluten flour.

scott123

Serving sizes can round. The AP could, in theory, be 2.51g and the BF could be 3.49g, and both, by regulation, could be rounded to 3g. For our purposes, nutritional labels are worthless. It's the Europeans, with their mandatory 100g portion labeling that have it made. But they don't get bromated flour, so it all works out in the end

scott123

Labeling gives you an entire gram window for rounding. 2.5 to 3.49 is 3g and 3.5 to 4.49 is 4g*

Normally, nutritional label protein quantities are not the way to calculate protein percentage, but, based on the regulations, we now know that the Sam's bread flour has to contain between 8.3% to 11.6% protein. Even at it's maximum, 11.6% is too low for pizza.

Labeling gives you an entire gram window for rounding. 2.5 to 3.49 is 3g and 3.5 to 4.49 is 4g*

Normally, nutritional label protein quantities are not the way to calculate protein percentage, but, based on the regulations, we now know that the Sam's bread flour has to contain between 8.3% to 11.6% protein. Even at it's maximum, 11.6% is too low for pizza.

The +/- variances on flour specs are a little different. Those actually reflect varying protein levels from batch to batch in the flour that they mill. There are some that believe that a quality flour should have a tighter range than a less quality flour, and, while I subscribe to that when the range starts getting ridiculously large (I believe Honeyville is renowned for their huge variances), I generally don't think the folks with precise numbers are all that precise, and I don't think the places with marginal ranges (such as +/- .5) really use the full range all of the time, so the difference between the marginal and precise millers might not be all that great. I think that if these +/- .5 folks actually did vary a full percentage point between shipments of flour, they'd lose a lot of commercial customers very quickly. Adjustments for new bags of flour are always expected, but, if, say, a 13% +/-.5% flour shipped a batch of 12.5% one week and then 13.5% the next, that wouldn't require an adjustment, that would require a reformulation. Nobody would put up with that.

I have used Sam's Club BF, HG flour, and their HG bleach and bromated flour for pizza. If you had to choose between the AP and BF for pizza, then go with the BF. I prefer their HG flour for pizza, but I have also made some very good crusts with their BF, so I know it is possible.

The +/- variances on flour specs are a little different. Those actually reflect varying protein levels from batch to batch in the flour that they mill. There are some that believe that a quality flour should have a tighter range than a less quality flour, and, while I subscribe to that when the range starts getting ridiculously large (I believe Honeyville is renowned for their huge variances), I generally don't think the folks with precise numbers are all that precise, and I don't think the places with marginal ranges (such as +/- .5) really use the full range all of the time, so the difference between the marginal and precise millers might not be all that great. I think that if these +/- .5 folks actually did vary a full percentage point between shipments of flour, they'd lose a lot of commercial customers very quickly. Adjustments for new bags of flour are always expected, but, if, say, a 13% +/-.5% flour shipped a batch of 12.5% one week and then 13.5% the next, that wouldn't require an adjustment, that would require a reformulation. Nobody would put up with that.